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WASHINGTON — A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening — or why she didn’t disclose it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III. Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista). The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

Taylor, a criminal defense attorney from the Washington firm Zuckerman Spaeder, said that the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation, and that the House committee has asked Lerner to explain why she provided “false or misleading information” to the committee four times last year.

Since Lerner won’t answer questions, Taylor asked that she be excused from appearing, saying that would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.” There was no immediate word whether the committee will grant her request.

According to an inspector general’s report, Lerner found out in June 2011 that some staff in the nonprofits division in Cincinnati had used terms such as “Tea Party” and “Patriots” to select some applications for additional screening of their political activities. She ordered changes.

But neither Lerner nor anyone else at the IRS told Congress, even after repeated queries from several committees, including the House Oversight panel, about whether some groups had been singled out unfairly.

Okay, this is now officially a scandal that even the MSM can't hide. The media and the administration cannot claim that the IRS did nothing wrong if there is a risk of self-incrimination. You don't take the Fifth when you "ha[ve] not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation." You take the Fifth when answering questions would incriminate you. If Lerner hasn't committed a crime or lied under oath, then she cannot incriminate herself and the Fifth Amendment does not apply. You cannot invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions about someone else's actions unless your knowledge of those actions makes you an accessory, which goes back to misrepresentation. Issa is going to have a field day with this, because the questions that she refuses to answer will tell us a great deal about what she and her higher ups knew and when they knew it. He should not excuse her from appearing.

Like I said yesterday. That proves that they knew the IRS was targeting people. I hope she fries. I still say it was her that released Romney's information to the Democratic Party during last years campaign.

If she isn't guilty of anything why is she clamming up? I would bet its to cover obamas ass, she doesn't want to die in a "accident"

She is doing to cover hers, Ried's, and Obama's ass. Plain and simple. They are saying that since she made a statement professing her innocence before announcing that she is taking the 5th, that she revoked it. That being the case and they call her back; there is no way she will be able to take the 5th again. That lady is one stupid person.